Janina Gavankar is an actress and musician. She is trained as a classical pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist. She majored in Theatre Performance at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Signed to Universal Records with a pop group in Chicago, she now lives in Los Angeles, as a full time actor. 

Musically, she has had songs licensed to movies and television, and plays marimba on film scores. She also has a pop project charting in India.

Gavankar's most notable roles are that of "Papi", in The L Word, and "Ms. Dewey", Microsoft's snarky interactive search engine (MsDewey.com). She has appeared in theatre, commercials, independent films, as well as Barbershop and its sequel, and television shows like Stargate Atlantis, My Boys, Spike TV's Factory, Grey's Anatomy, and Girlfriends.

influential, Influential Women, Asian Heritage, Indian Heritage, College, Entertainers, Diversity, Celebrity Diversity Topics,